148 



GLAFSEN AND POVELSETs's 



and swim round the mother with the egg still attached to them 

 by the umbilical cord. A circumstance still more wonderful is 

 related by the fishermen, and in which they all agreed; that 

 the young squalus frequently enters the dam for the purpose per- 

 haps of repose or nourishment, or to avoid approaching dan- 

 ger. We have, however, always doubted this account; till we 

 had one of these fish in our hands, and examined its internal con- 

 formation. The fishermen farther assert, that when they take a 

 female of this species, and open it in their boat, their young ones 

 issue out alive: this is natural enough; but that they re-enter the 

 mother when dead, remain in her, and come out occasionally for 

 the purpose of respiration, is a circumstance which we greatly 

 doubt, and have no means of ascertaining its truth. 



As the young squalus increases in size, the egg contracts 

 and diminishes in proportion ; till at last it drops, and the um- 

 bilical cord comes off. Some time before this happens, the 

 little fish has taken' food by the mouth, and has acquired suffi- 

 cient strength to be able to provide for and defend itself; k 

 therefore abandons the mother, as it can no longer find an asylum 

 * through her means. We ascertained that this species of fish 

 drops its young in the month of June, singly; some of them which 

 were alive having been brought to us between the 10th and 18th 

 of that month. Nothing, we conceive, is more probable than 

 that all other fish with cartilaginous fins possess nearly the same 

 singular economy in their generation. 



While we are on this subject we shall mention another pecu- 

 liar and interesting circumstance relative to the fish generally 

 called the Buckler, or the Cycloptems Linnm, Syst. Nat. 132, 

 which is found in abundance along the coast in the district of 

 Goldbringue. The female deposits and fixes her spawn on the 

 rocks along the shore, and sometimes so high that at low water 

 it can in the month of June be reached by the hand. This fish 

 comes to the coast in March, and departs in July. The in- 

 habitants of the western quarter, who apply to the know- 

 ledge of fish, assert that the male of this species breathes 

 frequently and gently upon the spawn, as if for the purpose of 

 hatching it. In the year 1755, we ascertained the truth of this 

 account by finding a quantity of spawn with the male near it. 

 It remained motionless, and horizontal in the w ater, its mouth 

 being turned towards the spawn, from which it was distant about 

 an inch; the mouth was continually in motion, opening and shut- 

 ting as if spitting something upon the spawn, but these mo- 

 tions were always slow : though the sun shone brightly, we 

 could not discover whether any thing came from the mouth; but; 

 it is probable that it communicated some nutritive air or humour 

 to the spawn, near which we did not observe the female ap=* 



